5 months

Our little girl just keeps growing up. She is still wearing her 3-6 month clothes but I have had to start packing a few away and getting out the 6-9 month stuff. 6-9 month...already!?? Not only is she wearing them but she is fitting them! It is just crazy.

Cheeks. Just about everyone that looks at her mentions her cheeks. I love those cheeks. I just tell them "She LOVES her milk!" they giggle and agree.

I'm so excited because she is loving her giggle now. It took her about a full month to figure out how to get her giggle on but now there is no stopping her. It sounds like music to my ears. She has also found her feet and is learning how to sit on her own. She can only sit for less then a minute right now but her little muscles are getting stronger every day so I'm sure that it's coming soon. She hates her bumbo seat. It makes me sad because Kadin loved it so much that he almost lived in it. She just arches her back and hollers at me to get her out NOW! However she LOVES her jumper. She will sit in it forever just bouncing her heart out.

And just like me she is still a bit of a night owl and loves to sleep in. She likes to stay up until about midnight, get up every couple of hours to eat, then sleep until 10:00 am. To be honest I kind of like this schedule because I'm normally wide awake in the evenings but tired in the mornings. I would love to get a little more sleep but for now I'm glad to have all of these extra minutes with her every night.

Christmas

Last year's white Christmas really caused a bit of confusion this year. As we have been counting down the days until the big day Emma started getting really concerned that Christmas wasn't ever going to come because we weren't getting any snow.

But even without the snow we had a fabulous Christmas....

Our stockings were all ready...even a few new ones! Mayla, Eric, and Alex all got new stockings this year.

We spent the night at Grandpa's house while we waited for Santa to come. And thankfully he came shortly after bed time because our children were too excited to sleep for very long. They began waking up at about 3:45 in the morning! Yep you read that right...3:45. We were able to keep them in bed until 4:45 but by then they were wide awake with NO indication that they were going to settle down. So we got up and out of bed to enjoy our Santa gifts until the rest of the house joined us.

A few of our favorite moments...

8 years old??!!

Wow. I can hardly believe that you are 8 years old already. I'm so proud of you. You are growing up to be a wonderful young gentleman that goes to school every day and does your homework almost every night.

One of my favorite things lately has been watching you with your sisters and brothers. You adore Mayla. You love to hold her and cuddle her and can't stand it when she cries. Kadin and Emma follow you around the house like a typical big brother and you like to play the "Big Tiger game" with them. You all turn all the lights off and pretend to find tigers in the house. You run and scream when you find them, then giggle and go back more more.

This has been a huge year of growth for you. First, you learned to swim. At your friend Jordon's party, you swam from one end of the pool to the other all for the chance to jump off the diving board for the first time...you know what, you rocked it and swam all the way across. You then proceeded to jump, dive and flip. That day, among many, filled our hearts with joy. You also learned how to do backflips on the Finnestad trampoline and how to jump your bike off a ramp at grandpa's house. You were able to drive your first car this year! We were so excited for you when you found out that you are tall enough to drive your own gokart. The look on your face was priceless!

Your best friends are James Finnestad, Ryan from your class, and Spencer from our neighborhood. Your favorite thing to play with your friends is Star Wars and wall ball. You had a couple of girls fighting to be your girlfriend and picked the winner by playing eenie-meenie-miny-mo (which sparked a little discussion about girls feelings with me!). And you have brought more then one love letter home from school.

Your favorite toys are guns, lightsabers, and legos. You have been creating some amazing masterpieces.

You have a great second grade teacher Ms. Clark and she really keeps you hopping. You love math and tolerate reading. But as the months have passed this year you have started to enjoy reading more. It has been fun to watch you grow. I remember a few months ago when you didn't want to read anything, but now you read everything around you and have even started reading to Kadin and Emma before bed.

After a year of asking and a year of saving you made your first big purchase. You are the proud owner of a brand new Nintendo DS. $149.00. In cash. All by yourself. And you love it!

Thanks for being my big, little boy.

Mommy

The Nutcracker

Being the actress that I'm not, I knew nothing about being in a real performance when I signed Emma up to be an extra in the Nutcracker this year. She loves the stage and couldn't wait for the big show. Well, it has been a little bigger commitment then I thought.

She had auditions with a long wait to find out if she received a part. Then we found out then she was cast as a Page. The Pages give gifts to Clara in the second act. After many weeks of long rehearsals and getting her hair just right for every one of those rehearsals (she has been in full costume for most of them). It was time for the full dress rehearsal.

So last night we had her dress rehearsal at the Ikea Performance Center. She got out of school at 3:00. We ran to my Dad's house to drop off Kadin and get her ready, then we arrived at the center at 4:00. After a very long evening in the green room, getting the dress make-up on (I helped dress up 45 tiny faces!),and getting everything just right, she finally had her few moments on stage. We were finally able to leave at 9:45 pm!

She was so tired. But she absolutely loves watching the real ballerina's. She wants to grow up and be one of the big girls...and I can't wait to see her.

She has 4 performances this weekend. And when we add in Austin's birthday on Saturday, it's going to be very busy!

4 months

Mayla is 4 months! She is growing up and getting bigger every day. I have slowly started putting away the 0-3 month clothes and start pulling out the 3-6 months stuff. I quickly figured out that I would need more then I had in the drawers and just had to go shopping for more...bummer right?!? She is also growing out of her size 1-2 diapers and going into a full size 2.

She is really starting to love toys. She likes to try to hold them while she checks them out and it only takes a minute before she is trying to put them into her mouth. Speaking of putting things into her mouth...that is where she wants everything right now. My fingers, my nose, my cheeks, her hands, her clothes, her blankets...well, anything that gets anywhere near her! She even grabs my head between her hands and tries to shove the entire thing in her mouth! She has also started to drool. Cute little drips of drool all over the place.

I often wonder if she can get any cuter. She wakes up every morning with a huge smile on her face and she is really trying to get the hang of the giggle. She has had a couple of real giggle moments and it sounds like the sweetest music.

She did get sick this month. Poor girl had the croup. We packed her up to the Doctors office and she gave us a couple of tablets of Dexamethazone. She was a tad bit grumpy for Thanksgiving but we are so thankful for her that it didn't even matter! The medicine worked wonders and she started feeling better pretty quickly.

Mayla rolled over this last month! She rolled from her tummy to her back once for her daddy and wouldn't do it again for me until tonight. She even showed me twice in a row! Her oldest brother used to suck his fingers like this too...

3 years old...

Happy Birthday Little Dude!

This year has been super fun with you around. You always know how to make us laugh and giggle.

Your favorite toys are still keys. I think that you have at least 4-5 sets now (of real keys), and you love them all. You also like to get your little hands on mine, or dads, or Aunt Janelles, or Mrs Finnestads... you have even been known to go up to strangers at the store and ask them for their keys (They always give me a little crazy look). One thing that has been funny has been watching adults (those that don't know you well) take your keys from you and tell you that keys are not toys. We chuckle as we tell them that those keys very much are toys and they are yours!

Your second favorite toy is the ride on trucks/cars. You know, the ones that you can use with your keys!

Alyia is your best friend. When I asked you what kind of birthday you wanted this year you kept telling me that you wanted an Aliya party. You love when she is in your class at church and love playing at her house or when she comes to ours. I have really enjoyed watching your friendship grow this year. I must add that she was your first kiss.

My favorite thing with you this year has been watching you in the water. Water baby doesn't even begin to describe you! You love it. We had to make sure that you had your jacket on every second of the time because you would literally jump off the end of the dock. You didn't even wait until we were ready to get you...

I'm not saying that you haven't come with a couple challenges. You love markers (not as much as your sister...thank goodness) and like to get your own way, but normally everything that you do includes a great big smile.